And a lovely time was had by all...

I'm so sad to go back to work tomorrow. I had a 3-day weekend after several weeks in a row of working Saturdays (not my normal schedule) and it was pretty awesome. Friday dawned cool and clear, with a snap in the air that is normal in other parts of the country this time of year but a treat in Vegas. J and I spent a lovely day together, shopping for necessities like a big pumpkin and Halloween candy, hanging out with Mimi in the backyard, and painting. That kid loves painting. I bought him a huge pad of paper 2 weeks ago that is already 3/4 used up. Then on Friday evening we carved a pumpkin for the first time ever.

J was very excited to go on the "commuter" with me to look up patterns to print out for our pumpkin. "Not scary face, Mommy" he told me several times. "Happy face." He wasn't too sure about the guts of the pumpkin--he seemed a little icked out by it--but by the end he did touch a few pumpkin seeds.




The look on his face when we took our pumpkin outside and lit the candle was PRICELESS. We could tell he had absolutely no clue what pumpkins were about until that moment. It was great.



Then on Saturday we headed off to the Southern Highlands Fall Festival and Charity 5K, which was So. Much. Fun. J was so excited to see me off at the start of the race, waving and yelling, "Run, Mommy! I run, too!!" and running around on the sidelines. As cheesy as it sounds that really got me pumped up and gave me all the wind I needed in my sails to finish that race. I know to more experienced runners 5K is pretty paltry stuff, but this was only my second 5K, almost a year later than my first one. Let's just say for a few months after we bought the house I fell off the running wagon for awhile so I had to start training again from scratch for this race. I was pretty proud of myself at the end, because I accomplished my three goals: 1) Finish the race. 2) Finish the race running, not walking. 3) Finish in less than 35 minutes. I was actually surprised that I accomplished #3. TH must have been surprised, too -- the only disappointing moment was when he and J were not at the finish line because they were fooling around at the Festival, and as TH told me later (rather sheepishly), "I thought you would take way longer." Thanks, honey:) The Fall Festival itself was alot of fun. It was everything a good Fall Festival should be -- pumpkins, rides, a bounce-house, slides, hay, music and a bunch of small children attempting to "square dance," cotton candy, balloon sculptures...it was really one of the best family outings we've had yet.



(You know how when you're running, you feel all long and lean and athletic, and then you see a picture later and realize that no matter how long and lean your tell yourself you are, you're still only 5'4" and still pretty stumpy, even in long black pants? Yeah that's me right now looking at this picture. My legs are so short LOL.)



(It's a sword, people, get your minds out of the gutter.)




The weekend wrapped up with another great day today. We got up too late to make the early service for church, but instead of lazing around at home we went out to breakfast, then went to the mall, and then finally made it to the second church service. J was a little chatterbox all day long, reviewing the weekend's events with us via his new favorite phrase, "Amember? (Remember?)" As in, "Mommy, amember the pumpkin I made it, with the seeds, and I got them with a spoon, and we put in the candle outside, amember? Amember we were running outside, and got the cotton candy, and I was dancing, amember? Amember?" So freaking cute!!



After a weekend like this, I'm really really really glad that I changed jobs two years ago so I could spend more time with J and TH. It was a pretty significant pay cut, but a pretty significant change in my quality of life, too with a 4-day workweek and reasonable hours (most of the time). Sometimes, especially now when money seems alot tighter than it used to, I'll have materialistic fantasies about all the things we could be doing and buying if I hadn't left that job. But then I'll remember the 60-hour workweeks that came along with it, and the days when I first came back from maternity leave when I only saw my infant son maybe 1-2 hours a day awake. And then my now 2-1/2-year-old son will say out of the blue while we're scooping out pumpkin innards, "I like Mommy stay home with me today," and I know it was the right choice.

(These last 2 pictures are from a different pumpkin patch we went to last week. Fall is so much fun!!)